Italian schoolteacher declared cured of COVID-19

Claudia Disi, a 54-year-old teacher in Rome, the first Italian patient treated for COVID-19 using monoclonal antibodies, has been declared cured of the disease, Disi and her doctors announced through video interviews Wednesday, reported Xinhua.

According to documents from the United States Food and Drug Administration and other sources, the monoclonal antibody therapy uses "laboratory-made proteins to mimic the immune system's ability to fight off pathogens such as viruses." The therapy was part of the regime used last year to treat then-U.S. President Donald Trump when he was infected by COVID-19, media reports said.

According to news reports, Disi was considered to be at high risk because she suffers from multiple sclerosis and has immunity issues. At one point, she tested negative for the virus but continued to suffer symptoms.

In video remarks broadcast across Italy Wednesday, Disi said her body "lacked the defenses to combat COVID-19."

Before receiving the treatment, she had been infected with the coronavirus for more than two months and had been in the intensive-care unit of Rome's Spallanzani Hospital for the previous six weeks.

Disi received her treatment, the first of its kind in Italy, on Dec. 24, just days after the therapy was given regulatory approval in Italy.

Disi said the treatment "gave [her] life back" to her. She called her recovery "the most beautiful gift imaginable." She is now recovering at home with her husband and her 18-year-old son.

Italy remains in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, the country's Ministry of Health reported nearly 13,000 new infections over the previous 24 hours, bringing the total number of domestic coronavirus infections to nearly 2.7 million. There were 336 new COVID-19 deaths reported Wednesday, bringing the overall death toll in Italy to 92,338.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 242 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 63 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Feb. 9.